A customer recently asked how to provide a subcontractor a copy of a Primavera P6 cost loaded schedule, and not include the costs?
In this situation, we have a subcontractor that needs to view the schedule to perform their work, but we do not want them to see any labor cost data or any other cost data. The good news is that you can create a no cost schedule project XER file of a cost loaded schedule in Primavera P6.
It is a two-step process though. First, we remove the cost data through the copy and paste procedure. Second, we export the project to an XER file that we can provide to our subcontractor.
This article demonstrates a how to quick tip for creating a no cost XER file of a cost loaded schedule.
In Figure 1 we have our demonstration schedule.
Figure 1
This Primavera P6 schedule is cost loaded and uses all the budgeted cost fields, including budgeted expense cost. We want to provide our subcontractor a copy of this project, but with no cost data.
We begin our two-step copy/paste-export process by first right clicking on our schedule, Figure 2, and selecting copy from the popup menu.
Figure 2
We, again, right click on our schedule and choose paste from the popup menu, Figure 3.
Figure 3
This brings up the copy project option dialog, Figure 4.
Figure 4
We can go with the default toggle settings here. Note that the baseline toggle is dimmed (or ghosted out), because our schedule has no baseline. Click OK, which takes us to the copy WBS options dialog, Figure 5.
Figure 5
Make no changes and choose OK. In the copy activity options dialog, Figure 6, we have a few changes to make.
Figure 6
Toggle off the resource & role assignments option and expenses option. The resource & role assignments option affects labor, non-labor, and material resources. The expenses option affects project specific expenses. To view our schedule and no costs set the “default price/unit for activities without resource or role price/units to $0.0/h, Figure 7.
Figure 7
Now when we open and view our schedule, Figure 8, all the budgeted cost columns register $0.00, which is what we want.
Figure 8
Continuing our two-step process, we now export our schedule without the cost loading, Figure 9.
Figure 9
Toggle Primavera PM – (XER), Figure 10, and set the version back to 8.2; it’s good to use older versions of the software for file transfers as the target audience may not have the most up to date version of Primavera P6.
Figure 10
Click next, which takes us to the export type dialog, Figure 11
Figure 11
Toggle project and click next. Highlight the respective project and click next, Figure 12.
Figure 12
Finally, choose a suitable file location and select finish, Figure 13.
Figure 13
You are done! You now have a schedule XER file that has no cost information. Forward the XER file to your target audience, and they may then load up the schedule, excluding costs.
Summary
Often stakeholders have a need to review the schedule, but not a need to know pay rates and other cost expenditures. If this is your situation you will want to export a copy of Primavera P6 to your target audience, and not include any cost data. This is achieved in Primavera P6 by first copy & pasting the project and second exporting the pasted schedule to an XER file.